The Pros and the Cons

I helped put a dead man in a body bag tonight.

He wasn't cold. He had died just a few hours earlier. Just as I came in, I think.

Also, he didn't "look" dead. He just looked like a human being. He had been doing well, recovering in the hospital from some condition or other. Then, finally, the mortal shell gave out. It didn't matter that his toe nails needed to be trimmed. He isn't going to need toe nails where he's going. I imagine someone may give him a shave if he is to have an open casket funeral.

The thing that surprised me is that it didn't bother me. It was a little strange putting a human being into what amounts to a giant sandwich bag. It is counter-intuitive to have a bag over one's head, never mind the whole body. But the act of dying is as natural as the act of breathing, or the act of being born.